[governance] The New Class: Civil Society Professionals?

[Vittorio Bertola]

Milton L Mueller ha scritto:
> Unfortunately, as we know all too well from its first two meetings,
> there are people associated with some governance organizations who
> deliberately attempt to foreclose discussion of topics that might make
> them uncomfortable. Not all of them, but some. Some people in the RIRs
> and ICANN, in contrast are quite reasonable and open. 

Then, the issue is how do we create transparent processes in the IGF AG 
so that issues cannot be foreclosed by certain stakeholders. But these 
processes should be fair and equal to all stakeholders, not directed 
against some of them specifically.

> So we simply have to be aware of that and not pretend that a committee
> stacked with -- for example -- ICANN staff and Board, domain name
> registries under contract to ICANN, etc., is going to be an impartial
> judge of what kind of issues should be discussed about ICANN. 

And why a leader of one of ICANN's constituencies (e.g. you) should be 
impartial about ICANN while a member of another constituency (e.g. a 
domain name registry representative) should not?

> As I said before, this is just common sense, and the harder certain
> people associated with I* organizations come down against such a simple
> and obvious point the more they indicate to the rest of us that their
> intention is indeed one of protecting themselves and their buddies from
> scrutiny. 

Sure, everyone who disagrees with you is in bad faith.

> Then you have conceded the main thrust of my point. And who said
> anything about "ruling them out entirely?" Really, the level of
> discourse on this list is just getting silly. Remember, this whole
> discussion was prompted by some language in the noncom report that said
> that wsuch people might have a "potential conflict of interest." 

And that some people considered that "potential conflict of interest" as 
a possible cause for dismissal of the nomination.

>> I don't see how a University or an NGO getting grants to
>> study IG is different from a RIR getting money to assign IP address
>> blocks.
> 
> Vittorio, if you can't see that difference you are blind. The authority
> to assign IP address blocks is an exclusive and globally applicable
> governance function that must be publicly accountable. This is like
> saying there is no difference between the national telecom regulator and
> a neighborhood advocacy group that forms to influence it. 

This is true only if you embrace the traditional view that there is a 
"regulator" at the top and everyone else lobbying it from the bottom. 
But if we really believe that IG is a multi-stakeholder enterprise or a 
"grand collaboration", then no function is special - RIRs perform some 
IG functions, NGOs perform some other ones, and they interact on a 
peer-to-peer basis.
-- 
vb.                   Vittorio Bertola - vb [a] bertola.eu   <--------
-------->  finally with a new website at http://bertola.eu/  <--------
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